


Inspiration

by Skullharvester



Series: Current WIPs [4]
Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Robot/Human Relationships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-30
Packaged: 2021-03-10 16:47:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 10,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28280376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skullharvester/pseuds/Skullharvester
Summary: Going out to the bridge to watch the sun go down has always made Elliott feel inspired, but lately he can't get the strange new farmer in town off his mind.
Relationships: Elliott/Male Player (Stardew Valley)
Series: Current WIPs [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2120226
Comments: 13
Kudos: 14





	1. Inspiration

**Author's Note:**

> Enjoy and have fun!
> 
> If you liked this tale, please drop me a kudos and/or a comment to let me know if you'd like to see more!
> 
> Thank you, and have a wonderful night!

Pelican Town was always especially beautiful at sunset. Elliott, the local aspiring author, often liked to observe it from the bridge that led from the beach into the heart of the cozy town. He found that it often inspired him in his writing to leave his cabin on the beach and observe nature for a little while, but lately a newer resident of the town had been causing his mind to wander. So much so that his romance novel had unexpectedly become a sci-fi novel, of all things. It was hardly his genre of expertise, yet that’s where his fascination took him.

What did the latest denizen have to do with sci-fi? Well, the man was a robot, of course. Yes, an actual, honest-to-Yoba machine that could think, converse, and feel. Elliott didn’t believe it at first when he heard the rumors, but sure enough, one day he walked outside of his cabin and found the blue-hued automaton attempting to fish with an old rod the fisherman Willy had given it. _Him_. Joey was more than an “it”, and more than his simplistic serial code of J0-3Y.

A lot of people in town were intrigued by Joey’s existence, but none so much as Elliott was. Some folk were fearful of the robot, while others found him to be quaint and endearing. Elliott considered himself to be of the latter category, but also there was something more.

He felt his cheeks pinken as the robot’s sweet face crossed his mind again. He envisioned the luminous, solid white eyes blinking at him curiously, and it melted his heart. That was exactly why he was writing a sci-fi novel, with no prior experience in the field.

“PATHFINDING ERROR. REROUTING. PLEASE WAIT…”

The automated announcement startled Elliott so much that he nearly fell over the bridge and into the river, but he managed to catch himself on the ledge he stood in front of. Turning his head, he saw Joey standing right next to him, apparently only now registering his identity, too.

“Oh! Good afternoon, ELLIOTT,” said the robot, pausing as his facial features assembled a preset chipper expression and his arm swiveled upward to wave stiffly. “Pardon me. It seems that my walk cycle schedule has not been correctly updated to accommodate for your usual daily habits. I will make the necessary adjustments immediately. Please forgive the inconvenience. The JOJA CORPORATION strives to provide a high standard for customer satisfaction.”

Elliott frowned slightly, not with irritation, but out of concern and pity. Unfortunately, Joey wasn’t entirely his own person. Technically, he was still the property of his capitalistic creators, and as a result, he was hardcoded into performing certain behaviors and rambling out prerecorded phrases that clearly weren’t his own. Maru, a young lady who lived on the north side of Pelican Town and loved to tinker with machines, was trying to find a way to fix that, but progress was slow.

It must have been nice, Elliott thought, for her to get to spend so much time with Joey. He wondered if by now they had become more than friends. His heart sank a little at the idea, embarrassed to be so envious.

Maybe it wasn’t right of him to romanticize Joey’s plight as much as he did, but it was impossible not to think about what it must be like to be him and in his situation. Did Joey even have the capacity for that kind of love? He was capable enough of making friends, and many of his emotions (other than what Joja Co. programmed into him to pretend to feel in regard to the brand) were indistinguishable from any human’s. Surely, he must have felt romantic love as well, right?

“Is something the matter, ELLIOTT?” Joey asked, puzzled. “You’re staring at me. I apologize again if I have offended you. I will save a recording of my behavior for later, to review where I may have gone wrong.”

Elliott shook his head, bringing his mind back to the present. “Hm? N-No, everything’s fine, Joey. You haven’t done anything wrong at all. I was lost in my thoughts.”

“Oh.” Joey mimicked Elliott’s pose, putting his hands on the waist-high stone wall of the bridge. He often parroted what other people were doing, Elliott noticed. It probably helped him to better understand what it was like to be human. “What are you thinking about?”

“The novel I’m working on,” Elliott replied, trying very hard to make the blush fade from his face before it became too apparent to the naïve machine. He cast his gaze back towards the sunset again, and Joey did the same in hopes of finding greater meaning there. 

Elliott’s answer was true, for the most part, and only a lie by omission. Really, he was dwelling on Joey more than anything else. The novel, if anything, was merely an outlet in which he could explore his conflicted feelings for the robot beside him, subtly and without having to make a confession outright.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Joey asked. He loved to help the people of Pelican Town. It was in his nature to want to serve, given his designation, but Elliott didn’t like to take advantage of it.

“Ah, there’s nothing I could really think of, other than perhaps the occasional reference,” Elliott replied.

“What kind of reference?”

The author shrugged, uncertain of the specifics himself. “Well, I don’t really know a lot about robots, and the story I’m writing has one in it. There are a few things I don’t entirely know how to describe accurately.”

“Such as?”

Elliott peered over at Joey again thoughtfully. Now that he was thinking about it, wasn’t he coming up on writing the part where the human protagonist and his robotic love interest kiss for the first time? His face got hot again, and he stammered. “I-It’s nothing, really.”

“Your internal temperature is rising. Do you lack adequate cooling?”

“It’s not that, Joey, I—” Elliott sighed, turning his hands white from grabbing so hard onto the stone barrier. “What does your skin feel like?”

Gears whirred as Joey tilted his head. “My skin?”

“Your, erm…” Elliott swallowed the lump in his throat. “What did you call it again? Your chassis?”

Joey smiled again. “Correct.”

“What does that feel like?”

“As opposed to what, exactly? More information is required to adequately process this inquiry.”

The more they discussed the subject, the fainter the author was starting to get as his anxiety grew. “I mean, have you ever kissed a human before? Do you know what that’s like?”

“Negative.”

“I see…” Elliott wasn’t sure why he asked at all; he doubted that Joey had, but at least that confirmed things hadn’t progressed too far between him and Maru. “That’s all that I can think of for now. Thank you, anyway, Joey.” He beamed brightly, as genuinely as he could manage.

When Elliott went back to watching the sun go down, Joey hesitated to move even though it was clear the conversation had come to an end. Elliott acknowledged him again, assuming that his pathfinding was still bugged. He stepped out of the way, giving the robot plenty of space to go about his business.

“ELLIOTT…”

“Yes, Joey?”

“You are a human.”

“Yes, Joey.”

“And I am a robot.”

“Where are you going with this?”

“I believe I have a solution for your conundrum.”

Elliott’s face paled and his heart skipped a beat. “O-Oh?”

The robot came closer, unwittingly backing Elliott up against the other wall on the opposite side of the bridge. “We could perform this KISSING,” Elliott flinched at how loudly he said it, hoping the whole town didn’t overhear it, “and you could take notes for your novel. Are these terms acceptable? Y/N?”

Elliott was trembling with nervousness. He really _was_ on the verge of passing out. “Y…Y?”

_Y_ , indeed. Y was he actually agreeing to this?

Joey pressed his body against Elliott, and waited for the human to reciprocate, smiling all the while. Elliott brought forth what little courage he had in him to cup the robot’s jaw and bring their faces together, canting his head as they kissed.

Elliott expected Joey’s chassis to be a hard surface—either plastic or metal, but there was a thick layer of silicone present. The robot’s lips didn’t have the same sensation or taste (especially due to a lack of pores and sweat) as real skin, but the softness was pleasant and had a fresh powdery scent to it. His body was also warmer than anticipated, and that was probably thanks to the heat given off by his internal systems. It was hugely different from touching a human, but an amazingly alien experience, nonetheless.

The author hadn’t noticed that he’d gotten more intense with the kiss than he planned, either. He parted Joey’s lips, exploring the inside of the automaton’s mouth with a curious wet tongue that became entangled with an eager, dryer silicone one. Some form of tasteless lubricant was released within, catching Elliott by surprise. Was Joey _built_ to have this kind of functionality? Why? He was just a soda advertising mascot, wasn’t he?

It didn’t matter. Not right now, anyway. Elliott snaked his arms around Joey’s waist desperately, embracing him tightly. He dreamed of this moment, and it was better than he imagined it could be. By now, Joey was holding him, too, and the way the machine cradled him in his arms had to be sincere.

Elliott eventually broke the kiss, having to gasp for air to catch his breath. His head was spinning, and he held onto the robot’s strong, yet gentle, arms for support. Looking into Joey’s dimly glowing eyes, he leaned their foreheads together, closing his eyes and nuzzling against the rubbery face while breathing raggedly through his nose.

“I love you, Joey.”

“PATHFINDING ERROR. REROUTING. PLEASE WAIT…” Without explaining himself, Joey lifted Elliott up into his arms, and then carried the author back to his cabin on the beach.

Whatever it was he had planned, it was probably the right idea. The novel could wait.


	2. Writer's Block

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Surprise, I lied, HAVE A SEQUEL!
> 
> (This, like the first one, came to me on a whim. I may occasionally put out some more Stardew Valley stuff every once in a while, when the mood strikes me. It's a fun little warm-up between working on my mainline stories.)

Elliott retrieved his keyring from his coat pocket when Joey set him down in front of the door to his cabin. It took the author’s trembling hand several tries to insert the house key into the lock. He was _that_ nervous about this unexpected visit from the automaton. 

But before he could get the door open, Joey announced, “Goodnight, ELLIOTT!” Shocked by the farewell, Elliott spun back around in alarm to face the robot, who continued his speech while waving goodbye mechanically. “Take care, and as always, thank you for choosing JOJA!”

“Wh-Why are you leaving?!” Elliott asked. “I thought—”

“The current time is: 6:00PM,” Joey responded enigmatically.

The author’s shoulders slumped exasperatedly, and his ginger eyebrows knitted together. “That doesn’t really answer my question…” 

Did the robot misunderstand what he’d asked?

“You always arrive back home by: 6:00PM, except on FRIDAY, SUNDAY, and OBSERVED HOLIDAYS,” was the explanation.

So, Joey _did_ memorize some of Elliott’s daily habits. That was…both a little creepy and endearing. Elliott couldn’t, nor wanted to, judge the robot very harshly for his eccentricities. It made sense that a machine might not understand much about how social etiquette between humans worked. A lot of it was bizarre and arbitrary, and admittedly hard to figure out even as a human. Elliott himself was always considered to be an oddball that shirked typical conventions, and he _was_ human. He could certainly empathize with the struggle to truly understand other people, and that might have been one of his largest obstacles to overcome when it came to his writing.

“I will see you tomorrow,” said Joey, smiling, but not _quite_ in the predetermined way he normally did. The lips were stretched a little wider, and a bit of the smooth white bar that resembled a top row of teeth (really, it looked more like the robot was wearing a white mouth guard) was showing. “I hope that I have been helpful in assisting you with your research.”

Research? Oh! Right, the kiss! Elliott almost laughed at himself in embarrassment at the thought of the comment going right over his head. He completely forgot that he wanted to know what it felt like to kiss a robot because of the story he was writing, where such information would be extremely relevant. Among other reasons…

Elliott’s tongue rolled against the roof of his mouth unconsciously, trying to relive the experience, but it wasn’t the same without the presence of the silicone tongue and the unnatural “breath” reminiscent of the heat blown from an air conditioning vent. As strange and unpleasant as that sounded, he really enjoyed it, so much so that he was missing the sensation already. He thought to ask for another kiss, but he was reluctant to come across as needy or pushy. 

After all, a lot of their relationship was imagined on his part. Joey might have known most of his routine, but they rarely actually _spoke_ to one another much. Elliott spent a lot of time watching him from afar and daydreaming about what might unfold if they got to know each other on a more personal level. It was pure serendipity that led to today’s events, rather than something that had been building between them for a long time coming.

It made Elliott a little depressed when it dawned on him that his penchant for romanticism got so far ahead of him that he envisioned this whole story of how he and the robot fell deeply in love, to a point where he forgot that it hadn’t occurred in reality, except for them having a first kiss, which exceeded his expectations. Although, he was _slightly_ disappointed that it didn’t take place in a rowboat out in the middle of the ocean after confessing his love, like he’d imagined it would.

“You’re staring at me again,” Joey pointed out with a laugh. He was getting better at producing off-the-cuff laughter that didn’t sound totally canned. “Do you need assistance in opening your door?”

Elliott sighed, but smiled in an effort to disguise his sadness. “No, Joey, but thank you. And, yes, you’ve helped me a lot today. In more ways than I think you realize.”

“Great!” Joey bobbed his head appreciatively, then repeated himself, “Goodnight, ELLIOTT! Take care, and as always, thank you for choosing JOJA!” He jogged back to his farm, going in an erratic pace that would result in him getting back exactly on time, according to his own predictable schedule.

The author took mental notes of the odd behavior for future reference for his novel, and he let himself into his cabin. It would have been nice if Joey decided to stay for a while, as he believed that the robot would, but he supposed that he needed to get back to doing some serious work after writer’s block had plagued him for the past couple of days.

Elliott sat down at his desk, got the mess of papers on it “arranged” with a certain madness, then started to write with greater ease than he had for a while lately. This chapter of the book that he was on was mostly writing itself at this rate. There was a particularly self-indulgent scene that he decided to cut out of the actual novel, but he kept it for himself off to the side. He couldn’t believe he wrote it, honestly. It was more…saucy than anything he wanted his neighbors to read in a work with his name attached to it, and it probably wasn’t wise to include such a thing for his first novel, which probably needed to be something written with _all_ ages in mind. He expected that the local library would one day carry a copy of this book, even if only because he printed and donated it himself, should his attempts to get his novel published officially fail.

Looking back over the stack of papers that held the taboo scene, Elliott remained baffled as he read the words back to himself mentally. Was it appropriate to humor these kinds of thoughts about Joey, despite the characters involved _technically_ being separate and totally fictional people that were only _inspired_ by real people? And furthermore, did Joey even have half the parts that were being described in the section? Should he ask? No, of course not. That would _definitely_ be going too far.

…Really, Elliott only wrote it in the first place because he was admittedly crestfallen that he didn’t get to find out that information tonight for himself. It was silly to hope that their unanticipated encounter would go any further than kissing, all things considered, and what did it say about his virtue to expect that it would?

The concept of living in a cabin on the beach seemed so romantic on paper when he conceived the idea, but in practice, it was extremely isolating and lonely. The shells that spanned across the shore glimmered enchantingly in the sun, the gentle rolling of the waves was music to his ears, and the unpolluted sand felt so soft between his toes when he opted to walk along it barefoot at times, but without anyone to share the experiences with on a spiritual level, what was the point?

…Did robots have souls? Could they _have_ spiritual experiences?

If Joey could only imitate the notion of having one, he certainly had Elliott fooled.

Elliott tucked the redacted scene’s pages away into one of his desk’s drawers, underneath another stack of papers to keep it hidden. He didn’t have many visitors, but sometimes Leah, the sculptor who resided in the forest, dropped by. They had become good friends, and although he didn’t anticipate that she’d snoop through his things, he was more concerned that he may fling open the drawer, searching for something he wanted to show her, and while peering over his shoulder, she might read it by accident and not know what to think about his character anymore. After all, who in their right mind wrote risqué fiction about someone they hardly knew? 

Sometimes he worried that even the few people he confided in wouldn’t understand or accept his oddities if they knew about everything that went on in his head. That might have been what drew him so much towards Joey. It wasn’t _just_ that the robot was strange and different, but rather, it was because he came across as a kindred spirit. Nobody really understood what Joey was all about, nor why was here. Nobody really understood Elliott, either.

The author pulled a blank page out from underneath the pile on his desk, and he chewed on the eraser of his pencil ponderously. No, he shouldn’t be writing this with a pencil. Instead, he made the effort of getting out his nicest quill, best ink, and a proper piece of parchment for the occasion.

* * *

**_Joey_ **

_My heart raced when your lips touched mine._

_A thrilling experience that was truly divine._

_I may be man, and you a machine._

_But I love you, Joey._

_There’s no in-between._

_Upon the shore where lovers dwell,_

_It was here on the beach that, for you, I fell._

_Your charm has placed me under a spell._

_If you love me, too, please do tell._

_-Elliott_

* * *

The poem might have been a little much, and it was probably too formulaic, corny, and more along the lines of a song. However, it came directly from the heart. Elliott, as much as he hated to face the facts on the matter, was ultimately still a novice writer, and he had a long way to go before surpassing his hokey tendencies. But then again, his style of writing was a window into who he was as a person, and frankly, he was a little silly by nature. More than a little silly. Alright, he was an extremely silly man, but he was happy to be himself, flaws and all. 

Regardless, he hoped that when he delivered it to Joey the next day, the robot would like it. Better yet, it could result in him getting a more definitive answer on where it was that they stood now.

Elliott idly brushed the soft tail of the long iridescent duck feather in his hand against his cheek, utterly mired in his own lovesickness. What was an amorous dreamer to do?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "The book of love has music in it. In fact that's where music comes from. Some of it's just transcendental. Some of it's just really dumb."
> 
> Recommended Listening: The Book of Love by The Magnetic Fields


	3. Joja Cola

Work was doubly stressful when a manager’s eyes were on you, and that was often the case for Sam. Shane got his neck breathed down almost as badly, but Sam had it the worst. He suspected it was because he was younger and chattier, and thus assumed to be slacking in productivity, whereas Shane tended to zone out and quietly stock shelves diligently (despite his sleepless exhaustion), having little interested in talking to anyone—particularly the customers that passed through the grocery store’s isles while he was working. 

The JojaMart store manager of the outlet in Pelican Town, Morris, had a bad habit of micromanaging. He’d constantly sneak up behind his employees to make sure that they weren’t “stealing time” by taking on-the-clock breaks or cutting corners to complete their tasks faster and with less effort. Sam came under even further scrutiny when Morris caught on that the extra cases of Joja Cola he was buying on the way home were for Joey, the odd Joja robot who needed them for fuel.

Morris had been trying to reclaim Joey on the company’s behalf since the day the android turned up in town. It felt wrong to just hand him over since Joey acted a lot like a real person, so the townspeople stood up for him. Morris was told that so long as Joey lived in Pelican Town, he’d have to back off. But that didn’t stop him. He tried other desperate methods in an effort to get Joey back in league with the Joja Corporation. Coercion, legal threats, and now he was pressuring people like Sam into talking the robot into “coming home” now that he knew they were on friendly terms with each other. 

Yeah, right. As if Sam was going to deceive an innocent person like that just to keep a job that he didn’t care for in the first place. Of course, Morris never actually took “corrective action” against him. The worst he could do was make him work the lousy shifts and perform the hardest labor that no one else wanted to get stuck with, but other than that, Morris needed him as a worker more than Sam needed JojaMart.

Morris must have thought that there would be a promotion in it for him if he brought back the company’s advanced prototype robot. Sam couldn’t see why else he would be so obsessed over the matter when he was only a store manager, meaning that it’d be no skin off his back to simply “look the other way” and pretend that he’d never _seen_ a sentient robot wandering around Stardew Valley if he really wanted to.

If Sam were in Joey’s position, he probably would have skipped town. It was either really brave or really dumb to decide to stick around and live in the same general area as a branch of a megacorporation that wanted to toss you in a burlap sack and drag you back to HQ for Yoba-knows-what.

Actually, that was kind of why he thought Joey was pretty cool in the first place, aside from the obvious robot thing. Joey was “sticking it to The Man”, even if he was too naïve to realize it. Sam could always appreciate fellow rebels. Abigail was also on board with the idea of Joey being a part of their little “squad” of resident “renegades”, but Sebastian remained the only holdout, saying that Joey was “too much of a boy scout” to be part of their crew. He was sort of right about that, but Sam figured Joey just needed a little help with learning how to truly be his own man. 

Not that he, Sebastian, nor Abigail were totally independent yet themselves. They all still lived with their parents, but they didn’t have much of a choice. Money was tight for most people here, and the youth were especially disadvantaged, caught in the middle of changing times that made things more difficult for their generation to strike out on their own.

Sam almost envied Joey for the fact that the robot at least had his own place that he didn’t have to share with anyone else—no parents to tell him when to go to bed or how loud he could play his music, until he remembered that Joey’s lifestyle was very similar to that of Linus, the man who lived off the land. The only difference was that Joey was willing to accept help when it was offered to him, while Linus didn’t trust other people all that much.

Dwelling on stuff like that made Sam wonder sometimes: What was more important? Comfort in the familiar or total freedom? Some days he wished he could quit his job on a whim after Morris nagged him on a really bad day, and instead focus all his energy on becoming a famous guitarist. However, there was no guarantee he’d ever become successful, and it wasn’t a steady paycheck like working for JojaMart was. He’d also like to have his own apartment, maybe with Sebastian and Abigail as his roommates, but then he’d miss his Mom’s home cooking and playing with his little brother, Vincent.

The fact that he was so conflicted about things like that, even though Sebastian said the answers should be obvious to him, made Sam really relate to what Joey must have struggled with. People didn’t really get why Joey decorated his farmhouse with Joja merchandise and had so much nostalgia for the brand when the company was his oppressor, but Sam understood. Joja was his history, and even people who grew up in bad families tended to have the occasional fond memory.

“I completely understand how you might feel that Joey is a real person, Sam,” Morris said to the young man when he headed for the one open checkout lane with his shopping carried underneath his arms. “He was designed to be _extremely_ lifelike, and it’s obvious that his anti-theft measures are still intact. You see, if he didn’t protest to the notion of someone coming along and picking him up, he’d have been stolen from the company immediately. Something must have gone haywire in his circuitry to give him this idea that he doesn’t belong with us.”

“He doesn’t wanna go back to Joja Co., Mr. Morris. Give it a rest,” Sam replied exasperatedly, setting the cases of cola on the counter along with a few other items he picked up, while the weary cashier rang it all up and bagged the smaller purchases.

“He would if his memory wasn’t so scrambled,” Morris argued. “Besides, haven’t you seen him lately? He’s breaking down little by little. Ms. Maru may know her stuff when it comes to electronics, but only _we_ have the proper replacement parts to fully repair his wear-and-tear. What’s going to happen to him when she can’t keep patching him up anymore without the company’s help?”

Sam sighed, picking change out of his pocket to pay for his shopping. “He doesn’t look _that_ bad. I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about, dude. C’mon.”

Well, that wasn’t entirely true. Sam _did_ notice that Joey was starting to look a little off. His bright colors were slowly becoming sun faded out in the elements, there were tiny tears and punctures in his silicone skin that had been glued together as a temporary fix that hadn’t gotten a permanent solution yet, and sometimes when Joey moved around, there were noises that came from inside him that didn’t sound so good—usually followed by the lingering smell of burning rubber.

But obviously, Morris was just trying to scare him here.

“Mark my words, Sam, one of these days he’s—… _you’re_ going to regret holding out for so long, and you’ll only have yourself and the rest of his enablers to blame,” his manager chastised him with a wagging finger. “You think you’re doing him a service, but you’re not. You’re marching him straight to the scrapyard, and you’re going to feel awful about all this nonsense when it’s too late to turn back. It’ll be a great shame, too, because that’ll be a valuable piece of prototype technology flushed down the drain—technology that could have one day been developed further and help _real_ people.”

“Maybe you’re right, Mr. Morris,” Sam conceded, gathering his bags and the cases of soda. “I guess we’ll find out, huh? Anyway, see ya on Monday, boss.”

He left Morris fuming at the counter, and sadly, the manager’s frustrations were taken out on the cashier, who Sam overheard being snapped at to straighten up her lane. Sam might have been less cheeky if he knew that was going to happen, but there wasn’t much he could do about it now.

So, Sam went home to drop his things off in the kitchen, say hello to his mother and brother, then took the extra case of Joja Cola to Joey’s farm, where he found the android uprooting small trees with his bare hands to replant them elsewhere. It was kind of scary how strong he was. He looked like he had the same build as Sam, but Sam had to keep in mind that underneath the almost doughy skin, Joey had a steel skeleton and artificial muscle fibers that were a lot more powerful than what a regular human had going on, according to Maru.

“Brought you some more cola,” said Sam, holding up the case by its cardboard handle. He swore under his breath when the flimsy packaging ripped open from the weight of the sodas, sending full cans rolling everywhere. He bent over to pick them up and cram them back inside the case, and Joey rushed to help. “Sorry—my bad.”

Joey didn’t seem bothered in the slightest. “Don’t be sorry! Thank you for bringing me these, SAM. You have no idea how much it helps. I still need to repay you for the last supply you delivered.” The robot carefully cradled the cardboard case when it was handed over to him, covering the hole with his hand.

“Don’t worry about it. I got a few extra hours at work last week, anyway, so it’s no big deal.” Sam examined the busted case. “You probably don’t wanna open any of those up right away, though. They’ll explode.” He smiled at the idea that came to mind. “Hey, why don’t you come with me to the Stardrop Saloon? I’ll buy you a cold one from the vending machine. You said it takes longer to burn in your system if it’s cold, right?”

“Correct.” Joey was very flattered by the offer, but unsure of how to react. “Are you certain it’s alright if I join you and your friends? SEBASTIAN doesn’t seem to like me too much. I would hate to be a burden.”

“It’s not that—Seb’s just that way, y’know? He’s a cool guy, once you get to know him—trust me,” Sam assured him. “He comes across as a lil chilly at first, but he’ll warm up to you eventually.” All the talk of coldness made Sam smack his lips. “Now I’m thirsty, too. Go put up your sodas, and let’s head on over!”

Joey disappeared inside of his shack for a moment, then came back out shortly after. He and Sam raced to the saloon, but he was mindful not to outpace the human too much. He was doing his best to be more like the people in Pelican Town to better fit in. They seemed to like him more when he pretended to be less good at certain things than he really was, and they were more fearful of him when he displayed the full extent of his capabilities. He didn’t understand why, but he would go along with it, anyway. Being accepted and liked was more important to him than comprehending all the whys and why nots.

He and Sam arrived at the Stardrop Saloon early and found Gus struggling to install a new television set that would hang above the bar. Reasoning with himself that this was probably one of those few rare occasions where using his full capacity would be appreciated rather than frowned upon, Joey climbed onto the counter with the bar owner and helped him hold the heavy television up on the mounting bracket.

Gus exhaled, sweating profusely from all the strain he’d put himself through. Impressively enough, he might have managed to finish the job on his own, in time, but it wouldn’t have been good on his back.

“Thank you, Joey,” the bar owner sighed, cooling down and able to breathe properly again. 

Once he was ready, he got to work fastening the television set to the mounting bracket, and a task that might have taken him another hour or two was completed in far less time. He plugged the device in, and stepped down from the bar countertop, followed by Joey, to pick up the remote and turn it on.

“Whew! Great, it works!” Gus smiled proudly, turning his head towards Joey and Sam across the bar. “I’ve been putting off getting one of these for the bar. I don’t want folks to start ignoring each other and staring at the TV, but I think something can be said for the comradery people get when watching a sporting event, you know?”

Sam chuckled. “And rivalries.”

Gus grinned wider. “Well, hopefully it won’t start any fights. Not that that’s ever been much of a problem here.” He went to the till and took out a stack of coins, handing them over to Joey. “Here. Take this for your help. Buy your friends some drinks from the machine in the game room, or some tracks on the jukebox.”

Joey smiled and nodded appreciatively, splitting the money between himself and Sam. “Thank you, GUS! You are very generous.”

The bar owner got a towel out from behind the counter and started dabbing at his forehead. “Don’t mention it.” The loud commercial that was playing now drew his attention back to the television set, and it didn’t go unnoticed by Sam or Joey, either.

_Joey_ was on the screen. He was holding a can of Joja Cola and standing beside a mechanical canine wearing a dog collar that said “POP” on the tag in large font.

_Whether you’re fighting crime or just passing the time, JOJA COLA is the refreshing beverage to keep you energized for any occasion! We’ve got original, diet, and now new CHERRY JOJA COLA!_ said Joey in the commercial. _Like me, JOJA COLA is all synthetic with only 5% natural ingredients. That’s half than most other brands. Nature is unpredictable and messy, but here at our labs on the FIZZY FARM, we clean it all up for you with our special synthesizing techniques passed down to me by GRANDPA JOJA. Isn’t that right, POP?_

The dog on television barked in agreement.

_Refuel your stamina with JOJA today and be sure to tune in for my new animated TV series: THE ADVENTURES OF J0-3Y THE JOJA COLA ANDROID!_

The massive computer in the backdrop of the commercial beeped a critical alert sound.

_Uh-oh! You know what that means, POP! We’ve got to go save the planet from our evil competitors! It looks like the store brands are at it again!_

The commercial closed out with a catchy tune as Joey and Pop sprinted off screen, followed by a brief montage of them battling what were presumably bad guys—impostors of the Joja brand in this case. Schedule information for the upcoming show appeared on screen, and shortly after, the commercial for another product played. By that point, however, Gus pressed a button on the remote to mute the television set.

“I didn’t realize you were making commercials for Joja, Joey,” said Gus, frowning worriedly behind his mustache.

“It’s not recent,” Joey explained, appearing equally troubled.

“When did they record it, then?” asked Sam, pocketing his change.

“PROCESSING…” The robot couldn’t find an exact date, only a vague estimate. “A long time ago. Years ago. And the show was supposed to be live action, but plans must have changed when I disappeared.”

“Huh, makes sense. Cherry Joja isn’t exactly new,” Sam mentioned when he thought about it. “You don’t look all that excited to be on TV. My mind would be BLOWN if I were on TV. What’s up?”

“I… PROCESSING ERROR… RETRYING…” Joey swiveled his head to the TV, then back at Sam again. “I don’t know, SAM… It feels wrong, somehow.”

Sam blinked. “Wrong?”

“PLEASE WAIT… A lot about my past feels wrong. I can’t put my finger on it, but I’d rather focus on my life in the present. The life I have here in PELICAN TOWN.”

“But I thought you were kinda proud to be a Joja product,” said Sam, all the more confused.

“It’s complicated, SAM. I wish I could explain it, but I don’t know how.”

Sam smiled, taking the ambiguous answer in stride. “No worries. Either way, there’s no harm in checking out your new show, right? I think my lil bro would like it.” After contemplating it further, he added, “I wonder if Morris had anything to do with getting the company back on board with airing your commercial.”

“That’s very possible, SAM.”

Gus put away his dirty cloth and retrieved a clean one to wipe down the counter where their feet had been. “You _should_ be getting paid royalties, if you ask me.”

“I doubt I will,” said Joey with a hint of sadness in his vocoder. “My likeness is their intellectual property, after all.”

* * *

Sam and Joey spent the next thirty minutes watching television while chatting with Gus at the bar, but got out of their chairs when people started piling in. Sebastian and Abigail headed for the game room, and Sam and Joey went with them. Most patrons hung out next to the bar, but the game room had become like a little clubhouse for Sam’s friend circle entirely by accident. They usually had the place to themselves.

“Hey, Joey, put down your cola and come play Prairie King with me!” said Abigail, inserting some of the coins he and Sam split with her into the arcade machine—enough for two players.

The robot chugged down the last of his beverage, then joined her at the arcade cabinet to clutch the joystick in preparation for the game to begin. “Alright, but keep in mind that I’ve never played it before.”

“That’s okay! I’m still getting the hang of it myself, and I’ve had the home edition for a while now,” she said.

They were moving their little sprite-based characters around on the screen before Abigail even started her explanation of how the controls worked, and after toying with the buttons some, Joey had the gist of it. The game wasn’t so difficult, and it was actually pretty fun. That was, before the playing field got swarmed with wave after wave of enemies on all sides. Bullets were flying everywhere, and Joey was getting visibly uncomfortable over it all.

He couldn’t take watching the screen anymore, and abandoned his side of the machine, turning his back on it and covering his face with his hands.

“Joey, what’s wrong?” When Abigail asked that, Sebastian and Sam peered up from their game of pool.

“I don’t know,” said the android, his body sagging. “The game is too upsetting. It just is. I’m sorry.”

Abigail left the arcade cabinet to come pat him on the back. “No, _I’m_ sorry. I had no idea. How about Junimo Kart instead? It’s just a racing game—no violence.”

“Alright,” Joey replied in a monotone, recovering from his shock.

Sebastian rolled his eyes. “Hmph. Be right back, guys. I’m going outside for a quick smoke.”

“You shouldn’t smoke,” Joey said, looking at him now. “It’s bad for your health.”

Sebastian took out his pack of cigarettes and a lighter anyway. “Don’t be a hypocrite. Joja Co. just came out with their own line of vape pens. The only reason they ever ran anti-smoking ad campaigns was because they couldn’t get into the smoking industry themselves until recently.” He put one of the cigarettes between his lips.

Sam put down his pool cue. “Give Joey a break, Seb. You know he can’t help it.”

“I’m just saying,” Sebastian responded, his voice muffled by the cigarette. “He needs to stop being such a corporate tool, for his own good. It’s not doing him any favors latching onto the brand.” He flicked on his lighter experimentally, testing it to make sure it worked before he went anywhere. “I could probably take a look at some of his coding, maybe. _If_ I can get the time. See what’s keeping him shilling for Joja Co.”

“That would be nice, but…” Joey fumbled with his hands timidly. “It won’t change my personality too much if you change anything, will it?”

Sebastian shrugged casually. “I dunno.” Without saying more, he went outside for his smoke break, leaving Joey to consider his offer.

What was more important? Comfort in the familiar or total freedom? Joey wanted to be free, but at the same time, he was afraid of how that might change who he was. He didn’t know what it was like to be anybody else. He only knew how to be Joey.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "All my friends are robots. They got real jobs. They can't turn off."
> 
> Recommended Listening: All My Friends Are Robots by Arrested Youth


	4. Paracosm

Fall was easily Joey's favorite time of year to do his farming, although he stuck with it all throughout the year regardless to help provide an extra food supply for the people of Pelican Town. He took up farming in the first place because that's apparently what the barren land was once used for, and the mayor said that he could stay there, provided he could do something that would contribute to the community. 

Joey had no idea how to farm; it wasn't what he was built for, but he tried his hardest to learn. He ended up enjoying it quite a bit. There was something calming about going through the motions of tilling the soil, planting the seeds, and watering them in hopes that they would grow big and strong one day, with enough patience.

This year, he might even get a few animals, since he learned the hard way that barely anything grew in the winter, making the last season of his first year very boring and unproductive compared to the other months. But winter was still a while away, and fall was the best time to grow lots of things while he still could. The most important crop of all being corn. Why corn? Corn syrup: The most important ingredient in Joja Cola. 

He didn't know the recipe by heart. It was a secret even to him, the mascot for the sugary product, but he was determined to figure it out on his own. The only problem was that Joja Cola was made primarily of synthetic materials, meaning that it was going to take a lot of trial and error to figure out how to synthesize his natural ingredients into their abominable, mutant forms.

He knew that despite what was said about his persona's backstory, there was no "Fizzy Farm" formerly owned by the founder of Joja Cola, who, in his cartoon, was portrayed as his wise and elderly creator/grandfatherly figure that passed the allegedly weighty mantle of soda-making onto him when he died. It only began to truly exist once Joey named the land after the fictitious farm. Maybe it was a bad idea to mirror much of his life after the lie fabricated for his identity and his history, but it all just made sense. It was his destiny, at least, wasn't it? Most of it wasn't real now, but it could be.

He remembered a piece of advice that Elliott gave him after a recent conversation. They had been growing closer lately, and now that they were spending more time in each other's company, Joey started opening up and asking him some of the questions that wandered into his mind sometimes. Elliott seemed intellectually inclined enough, and maybe more suited for asking philosophical questions to than his best friend Maru was. Maru was easily the smartest person in town by Joey's estimations, but she was very cautious about giving out life advice. Elliott was a lot freer with that sort of thing.

_Always follow your_ dreams, Elliott had said. _Even if success may feel a little distant every now and again._

_But what if I'm not sure that they're my own dreams?_ Joey asked worriedly.

Elliott stumbled over a reply, but eventually gave a proper answer. _I'm sure you'll figure it all out in time. Just keep your chin up and hang in there._

Realistically, Joey couldn't always keep his chin up (it was hard to watch where he was going like that), and he didn't know exactly what he was meant to hang onto, but regardless, he did the best that he could in all things, hopeful that he would make sense of his existence one of these days.

He wished he knew how or why he turned up here in Stardew Valley, so far away from where he’d apparently originated, but no one had the answers to those questions any more than he did. All he could do now was make the most of the peculiar situation and grow his corn. Things might be less complicated and upsetting if there wasn’t a JojaMart standing so close to where he resided, but he couldn’t do anything about that. At least the place brought in a steady supply of Joja Cola. He relied on it to stay functional, and he would continue to be dependent on the company that manufactured him until he could duplicate the recipe and start making his own.

It was cruel to create a robot that was fueled by soda, of all things. Not to mention, that spoke volumes about the health detriments the product must have had on organic beings. If it could power a machine and strip off corrosion caused by a busted battery pack, it couldn’t have been particularly safe for humans to drink.

What if JojaMart packed up and left town before he discovered the recipe, and he lost his ease of access to the beverage? Then what was he going to do? There weren’t many people in town, and he’d already overheard the store owner, Morris, complaining about profits and business growth not meeting the projected expectations.

Maybe Joey would become inert again, laying face down in the ground until someone happened to come along with a fridge pack of Joja Cola to pour down his throat to wake him up again. It was lucky that Maru even figured out to do that in the first place. Sam wasn’t very happy about losing his only twelve pack of soda, though. But where was Sam going to get _his_ cola if JojaMart closed permanently? Pierre didn’t really import the stuff; he hated the brand with a passion now that they were encroaching on his small business. The vending machine in Gus’ saloon belonged to the corporation, so if Morris left, he was probably taking it with him.

Joey wondered if life was simpler back when he was totally subservient to his corporate masters. Living on the farm was peaceful, but increasingly difficult since he didn’t have the capability to fully support himself on his own. He relied not only on the Joja Corporation’s products, but also the generosity of his wary neighbors. Honestly, they helped him more than he helped them in return by running their errands for them. 

Maru found and repaired him, Mayor Lewis lent him an abandoned plot of land to stay on, Robin helped build him a little shack to keep him out of the rain and snow, and everyone was constantly giving or letting him borrow things that he needed to get by. Things that he didn’t realize he needed until he was shown their benefits. He might not have lasted long out on his own without his human neighbors. Most of them barely trusted him because of how mysterious he was, but they were kind and compassionate regardless of their doubts.

With the help of his friends, things were surely going to get better. He just had to keep his chin at least slightly elevated and hold onto things for support, when it was called for.

His tank was running low. After re-tilling the yard for the fall season, getting the seeds planted, and splashing water here and there with his rusty little copper can, he’d used up most of his reserves. He’d have to go into town again and acquire more Joja Cola, if he was going to make it through the rest of the day and the foreseeable weekend.

“I miss POP,” he said to himself, reminiscing about his trusty robot dog. “He used to bring me JOJA COLA whenever I needed it.” 

But did he ever own a dog at all, or were those just the false memories that were coming back to him over the span of the time since he’d been reactivated with more than half of his database scrambled? The ones that the Joja Corporation programmed into him before they ever switched him on for the first time.

It didn’t matter. He really wanted a pet dog, or an animal of any kind. The farm could be so lonely. Corn and squash didn’t do much to keep him company, and his friends in Pelican Town had lives of their own; they couldn’t be expected to stay with him all day at the farm while he did his work, though he did get the occasional brief visit.

Sighing with a static crackle from his vocoder, he set down his watering can beside the door of his shack and trudged into town. His pistons groaned with each sluggish movement, reminding him that he would need to ask Maru for another tune-up soon. He was in so much debt to his generous neighbors, and he wasn’t sure if he could ever repay it all without accumulating twice as much deficit before that could happen. There was always some problem or other that sprang up throughout the seasons, and it was shameful to have to ask for more and more assistance when he felt he’d already overstepped his boundaries.

These people barely knew him. _He_ hardly knew himself. It wasn’t right to ask anyone for anything, but he had no choice if he wanted to survive. The only alternative was to submit to Morris’ demands to return to the company’s fold willingly, and that was yet another thing that the locals protected him from. So long as Joey was part of their community, no one was about to let the Joja Corporation, which was already wearing out its welcome in town, abduct him as if that were all fine and dandy, even if he was a machine and technically belonged to the business.

Joey wouldn’t feel so bad about any of this if he could only be the hero he was portrayed as in the fictional stories written for him on TV. He’d become that hero one day. He just had to work harder to get there, but it’d happen. Dependency wasn’t in his nature; he wanted to be a nurturer himself. Though no one ever told him so directly, he had the belief that he was a disappointment, and he couldn’t let the people who gave him sanctuary down.

“Hi, Joey,” said Maru as she encountered him on her way to the clinic where she worked. “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” he replied, and the loud pop of something shorting out inside of him revealed his lie immediately. He made an expression like a wince as he accessed the damage. “RUNNING DIAGNOSTIC…”

Maru gave him a worried look, clutching the zipper of her bag in preparation of bringing her tools out.

“…No,” Joey confessed when the scan was complete, revealing to him the extent of his sorry state.

“I’m sure Harvey wouldn’t mind if I gave you a quick check-up in the clinic,” said Maru, gesturing for the robot to head on inside. “If I recall right, we don’t have our first appointment schedule for today for another hour. That should be plenty of time to patch you up, at least, and then when I get more time, I can take a more in-depth look at you.”

Joey smiled, white eyes dimming sadly. “Thank you, MARU, for being such a good friend—” Something inside his mind shifted, as it often did when his creators’ influence took hold. “Thank you for your loyal support for the JOJA CORPORATION. At JOJA, we appreciate all our customers, from first-time buyers, to lifelong fans. A discount coupon for 5% off your next JOJAMART purchase has been mailed to your home address. Please allow up to 5-10 weeks for delivery. Coupon expires FALL 10TH of… YEAR NOT FOUND, PLEASE UPDATE CALENDAR… CURRENT YEAR.”

“That’s only a couple of weeks from now,” Maru pointed out, not that she was concerned about getting a coupon for JojaMart. She simply found the discrepancy to be strange. “It’ll be expired before it gets here.” She couldn’t help but laugh.

“We are sorry for the inconvenience. If you have any further concerns or questions, please contact our customer support line at 1-800—”

“Joey, that’s alright. You don’t have to give me the whole spiel,” said Maru with a kind expression.

The android’s body relaxed, no longer moving so stiffly and animatedly as he spoke. “Sorry, I can’t really help it. It happens on its own when something triggers it, I guess.”

“I know,” she said. “We’ll figure out how to stop it soon. C’mon.” Maru opened the door for him, leading him to the examination room. “Morning, Harvey,” she called out when she spotted the doctor already in the room, getting the drawers of supplies reorganized; he didn’t like to leave all the menial labor up to Maru alone.

Turning to face his nurse and the robot, Harvey adjusted his glasses and took a sip of his coffee. He was clearly still in the process of waking up. “Good morning, Maru. And Joey. What brings you here?” He grinned a little underneath his mustache at the blue automaton. “Not coming down with a cold, are you?” he teased.

“That’s not possible, DR. HARVEY,” Joey replied, taking the comment very seriously until it hit him that the doctor was telling a joke. “Oh! Ha-ha-ha! I get it now,” he laughed, finding genuine humor in the jest, despite his difficulty in expressing the sentiment. His face straightened again. “But, no, I appear to be having troubles staying in one piece.”

“Ah, my condolences. I wish I could do more for you, but I’m afraid I only know how to work with flesh-and-blood people,” Harvey explained regretfully.

“It’s alright,” said Maru. “That’s what I’m here for!” She placed her bag down on the counter and opened it up, collecting the necessary tools.

Harvey nodded, patting her on the shoulder appreciatively. It was too bad that more of the folk around here weren’t robots like Joey; he would have liked a lighter workload, being the only physician in town. He didn’t get to serve the community with the level of quality that he felt they deserved because of how overworked and stretched thin he was.

“Well, I’ll let you get to it, then,” he said, finishing off the last of the coffee in his mug. He shook the empty ceramic cup, indicating that he needed to go for a refill. “Thanks for relieving me of an extra patient, Ms. Maru. Not that I wouldn’t have minded fixing Joey up, if only I knew how.”

She chuckled and said, “I’ll teach you how one day.”

A wider grin tugged at the corners of the doctor’s lips as he left the room, shutting the door behind himself to give them more privacy in case their first patient of the day came in early, or if someone showed up looking to purchase some medicine.

Maru motioned to the examination table, and Joey sat down on it, used to their usual routine even though these tune-ups normally took place at Maru’s house rather than the clinic. He lifted the back of his blue sweater—the one that he always wore with the letter “J” printed on the front in white, and then waited for her to peel back the layer of silicone that covered up the hatch in his upper back to look inside at his inner workings.

The first time Maru got to see what made him tick was one of the most thrilling experiences of her life. A real android, and an extremely advanced one at that! She always wanted to make a robot of her own one day, and now she could use Joey as a reference for her future project.

What she didn’t expect, though, was that taking him apart and putting him back together would eventually become rather mundane. Not in a disappointing way, but simply in a way that surprised her. She wasn’t playing with a fancy new gadget anymore; she was helping a friend that she cared a lot about. Joey wasn’t just a toy to be marveled at; he was a person as much as anyone else in town was. His needs were different, and he had his own quirks, but didn’t everyone?

Really, she was glad that she wasn’t so giddy about his existence after knowing him for nearly a year now. More people needed to see Joey as an individual, and not as a thing. That was what _he_ needed now more than anything else. Like everyone else, he obviously wanted to feel like he fit in and be regarded with respect. She did the best that she could to grant him that dignity, and she would encourage her peers to do the same, even if many were slower to understand than she was.

“So, what’s been new lately? I haven’t seen you around for a couple of days,” she mentioned, making idle chatter so that the examination would be less awkward. Harvey had been teaching her about bedside manner, and she was improving at it.

“ELLIOTT has invited me to attend the STARDEW VALLEY FAIR with him this year,” said Joey chipperly.

Maru dropped her screwdriver inside of Joey’s chest cavity, and she hurried to fish it back out. Thankfully, it hadn’t damaged anything. “Re-Really? Elliott, as in the one who lives on the beach?” 

There wasn’t another Elliott that _she_ knew of, but the man didn’t seem like the type of person that Joey might take a special interest in. Although Elliott seemed nice enough, in the few times she’d interacted with him, she wasn’t sure that he and Joey would have anything in common. What did they possibly talk about? Now she was curious.

“Yes,” the machine replied, completely unfazed by the accident. “…Actually, I believe his birthday is coming up in a few days as well. I’m undecided on what to give him. Something with sentimental value…”

Maru pried the burnt-out battery pack stuck in its enclosure using her screwdriver, replacing it with another she kept in her bag for situations like these. Joey’s head lowered and his eyes flickered, but he booted back up once the new battery was in.

“Do you like him?” Maru asked once his operating system had finished reloading, blushing at her own question.

“I like everyone here,” Joey responded politely, as if it should be evident.

“I know, but I mean…” She struggled to convey her thoughts in a way that he would understand. “As more than a friend.”

Joey’s waist twisted slightly to face her, interrupting her work. “What is greater than friendship?”

She put down her screwdriver, twitching her mouth thoughtfully. “Romantic love,” she clarified. “Like, for example, what my mom and my dad have. You’ve noticed that what they have is a little different than what regular friends have, right?”

The machine pondered this quietly for a while, facing forward again. She continued to go about tending to the burnt pieces of hardware inside of him, having to replace some of the non-vital wiring in his systems. He thought about some of the parallels between his behavior with Elliott and the behaviors of Maru’s parents, seeing a possible connection or two.

“We kissed once,” Joey said rather abruptly, giving her another start.

“Aww! That’s so sweet. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me before now,” she responded, gushing a little at the thought.

“I didn’t think much of it at the time,” he explained. “I was trying to help him with his novel.”

She wasn’t sure how the two things added up, but she went along with it. Joey’s thought process was strange, but not totally beyond understanding if she asked the right questions to piece it all together. “What’s the novel about, anyway?”

“It’s an ADVENTURE/ROMANCE novel about a human who falls in love with their robotic companion in their quest to save humanity. He’s almost done with it, I think.”

Maru giggled uncontrollably.

“What?” Joey asked, feeling slightly indignant to be left out on the joke.

“Joey, come on, it’s obvious; I think he loves you,” Maru replied. “As more than a friend.”

The robot paused again, processing the information. “He did send me a poem or two stating something along the lines of that.”

“What?!”

“I assumed he meant platonically.” Joey appeared embarrassed to not have caught onto it until Maru laid it all out for him so plainly.

“Joey, the two of you _kissed_ ,” she said incredulously.

He made a soft blipping noise that suggested he didn’t understand why that was so critical. “Friends kiss all the time.”

“Was it on the cheek, or…?”

“He used his tongue.”

“Oh…”

“I did, too.”

“ _Oh…_ ”

“Is that atypical of friendly behavior?”

“Er, it’s a little _too_ friendly for most people, I believe, Joey…”

“In that case, perhaps we do love each other as more than just friends.”

Once Maru sealed up the hatch on his back and put the silicone flap back in place, Joey stood up from the examination table and bowed his head in her direction as a show of his gratitude. “I appreciate your help, MARU. Not only with the repairs, but with the advice.”

“Woah, woah. Settle down, Joey,” she said, realizing she had gotten a little _too_ involved in his private affairs with all the comforting bedside talk. “Don’t run off and do something rash on my account. Maybe you should sit on this for a day or two before you—”

“Have a good morning, MARU, and as always, thank you for choosing JOJA!”

She couldn’t get another word in before he rushed out of the clinic, no doubt headed to meet with Elliott. She’d have to be more careful next time she talked with patients about their personal lives…

“Wait!” she called out as she remembered something important. “Your fuel levels are low! Joey!” Maru sighed, covering her face with her palm.

Once Joey got an idea stuck in his head, he tended to let all other priorities fall to the wayside. Perhaps that was another bug in his systems that needed to be fixed. Or maybe it was a feature. Either way, on her next break, she’d make sure to pick up a case of Joja Cola and bring it by Joey’s farm, assuming he didn’t crash before he made it back home.

What a ridiculous robot. He was always off in his own little world: The one inside his head. As inefficient and silly as it all was, she found it kind of sweet.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Since I left you, I found the world so new."
> 
> Recommended Listening: Since I Left You by The Avalanches

**Author's Note:**

> "Will you kiss me again so I can pretend we're kissing for the first time? Because when we kissed for the first time, I was distracted. I couldn't believe it was true, that I was truly really finally kissing you."
> 
> Recommended Listening: Let's Do Everything For the First Time Forever by Of Montreal


End file.
